I have continued to read SD about the same level as since the change (all of what, 2 weeks ago or something).

Oddly enough, I have not responded as much on ORG because now that a lot of the noise is removed. The quality of a post stands out in glaring contrast more now that when it previously was burried amoung loads of "Dunn sux" and "lol " type posts. Since I've been swamped at work latley, I generally want to put more thought into my responses so they offer something to the conversation. I've been chatty today, but over the past week or so I've been much more focused on making quality posts.

Seems to me, that is (partly) the exact intent of the changes. So from a personal level, I'd say, so far so good.